Eric LeGrand will be placed on a motorized scooter Saturday and lead Rutgers onto the field. It will be an unbelievable moment for a lot of reasons.

LeGrand was paralyzed last year, and doctors initially believed he would never breath without a ventilator.

After he went down while making a tackle against Army, LeGrand was given at best a 5 percent chance of regaining any neurological function.

And most unbelievable of all, LeGrand is relatively lucky.

His tragedy was national news, his bills are paid for and millions of people have been inspired by his courage. But for every Eric LeGrand who is paralyzed in college football, there are eight high school players who will never walk again. Many will be forgotten and financially ruined.

“We had two go down in Texas this season,” Eddie Canales. “One in Utah.”

He tries to keep a tally from his home in San Antonio, Texas. That’s where he runs Gridiron Heroes, which provides help to kids who’ve suffered spinal injuries.

I first ran across Canales last year, just after LeGrand was hurt. He was trying to get the NFL and NCAA to help his little shoestring operation.

The NFL will immerse itself in pink to fight breast cancer, but it doesn’t like to dwell on the most catastrophic thing that could actually happen to a football player.

“It’s still hard trying to get support within the football community,” Canales said. “That’s starting to change, but not as fast as needs to be done.”

Not fast enough for Rocky Clark. He was paralyzed 11 years ago making a tackle for his Chicago-area high school. Clark received $5 million from the school district’s catastrophic injury insurance.

That’s enough for most people to live happily ever after. But most people don’t have to retrofit their lives, breath through a ventilator or need round-the-clock care.

Medication alone was $70,000 a year. The money started running out and Clark’s mom couldn’t pay the mortgage. The bank foreclosed.

Canales said the house was just hours from being auctioned when Gridiron Heroes showed up at the courthouse with enough money to temporarily stop the sale.

With a budget of around $100,000, the organization can’t save everybody’s day. What it lacks in money it tries to make up for in emotional support and advice.

“No one’s ever prepared for something like this,” Canales said.

He should know. Canales’ son Chris broke his neck in a game 10 years ago. Eddie quit his job as a bookstore manager at the University of Texas-San Antonio to take care of his son. They’re familiar with the course these tragedies take.

There’s an initial outpouring of sympathy. There are tributes, like the one last week in Utah where a team did not attempt an extra point when it got ahead, 26-0. Instead, the South Summit High Wildcats gathered and pointed at the scoreboard. It was in honor of their teammate, No. 26, Porter Hancock. He was paralyzed in game two weeks earlier.

Teammates and coaches don’t forget the player, but life always moves on.

“It’s human nature,” Canales said.

According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research, 13 professional players have been paralyzed since 1977. We remember Mike Utley and Dennis Byrd.

We also remember Chucky Mullins, one of 33 collegians paralyzed in the past 34 years.

It’s harder to remember names such as Jeremy Green or Zigwon Carter, two of the 243 high-schoolers paralyzed in that time.

The fortunate ones play for schools with catastrophic injury insurance. Even then, it’s often hard to raise the $25,000 deductible.

Many kids end up on public assistance. Instead of famous players and pretty cheerleaders across America bedecked in pink, the high-schoolers have Canales and his son.

“We’ve been doing it without corporate sponsorship,” Eddie said. “It’s been a dad and his son pounding the street and creating awareness.”

There are happy stories. Gridiron Heroes recently spearheaded a drive that bought a $60,000 van for a paralyzed player in Texas. Such acts got the notice of CNN, which named Canales a Top 10 Hero for 2011.

That came with a $50,000 grant. Canales is now up for Hero of the Year. That would mean a $250,000 grant. You can go to gridironheroes.org and cast your ballot.

“We could use the votes,” Canales said.

He has followed LeGrand’s progress. He knows far better than most what a special day Saturday will be.

“All that stuff with Eric is great,” Canales said.

Like all those hundreds of fallen players, LeGrand deserves the cheers and support and admiration.